Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation (CRF) is supporting Specialized Services for Children and Youth (SSCY) with a contribution of $250,000 towards their $5 million capital campaign.

SSCY is raising funds to provide the newly repurposed building, located at 1155 Notre Dame, with enhancements to make it soothing, aesthetically pleasing as well as fun and innovative where children and families dealing with disabilities can receive multiple agency services in one location. Design elements include a community approach allocating various services into neighborhoods.

CRF is pleased to contribute to Central Park, a therapy courtyard in the heart of the new facility where people can meet and will serve as the reference point for directions to other areas in the SSCY Centre. Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation Central Park will be the gathering place in this very special community.

“It’s about ability, and the Children Rehabilitation Foundation is pleased to help the SSCY campaign accomplish their mission of helping as many children as possible,” said Pat McNeil, President, Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation’s Board of Directors.

“CRF has demonstrated their leadership in the community by supporting our campaign. We are thrilled to have CRF as our first contributor to our neighborhood program. It’s through community support that we will make this project a reality to ensure families will be able to access services in a warm and welcoming environment,” said Bob Adkins, Co-Chair, SSCY Capital Campaign Cabinet. The 92,800 sq. ft. facility is expected to open in the fall of 2014.

The Rehabilitation Centre for Children as well as Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation will be the main locators in the new facility sharing the space with a number of locating partners including: select services of Children’s Hospital, SMD,Community Respite, Manitoba Family Services & Housing and the WRHA. Other service agencies offering services through the SSCY Program include: Central Speech & Hearing, CNIB, Manitoba Education, Citizenship & youth, Manitoba Health, St.Amant, and The Movement Centre. SSCY is an alliance of service providers co-locating at the new site.

The new Specialized Services for Children and Youth facility will include:

child development services;

central intake and delivery of occupational, physical and speech/language therapies and audiology;

a communication disorders clinic;

rehabilitative services including prosthetics, orthotics, and seating and mobility assessments;

In the new SSCY Centre multiple agency services will be offered in the one location making it much easier for families and more effective and efficient. Specialized neighborhoods focusing on the needs of the children include: The Square, Ability Acres, Speech & Hearing Central, Picture Studio, Clinic Crossing, Kid’s Care Corner, Discovery Park, Innovation Place and Success Heights. Other features of the Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation Central Park include a two-storey garden courtyard filled with lush, green foliage, bathed in light. It will offer families an island of serenity, discovery, and imagination. An oasis of nurturing and healing, a place where children learning to use a walker or wheelchair, are able to focus and draw on that innermost strength necessary to defy the odds and achieve their full potential - a place so very much deserving as thesefamilies wait for the next appointment.